Clifford Takes the Blame for Defensive Issues: 'I Have Failed Pretty Miserably'

In Charlotte, defense is optional.

One of the biggest reasons why James Borrego was dismissed from his head coaching duties following the 2021-22 season was the efficiency on the defensive end of the floor. Although the Charlotte Hornets had a high-powered offensive attack during his four years at the helm, the defense was often optional.

Insert Steve Clifford.

The veteran NBA head coach was brought back to Charlotte to help this young squad elevate its game on defense to match the effectiveness on the offensive end. To this point, it hasn't paid off. Currently, the Hornets rank 25th in points allowed (120.4), 24th in paint points allowed (54.2), 30th in three-point FG % (39.8%), and 30th in defensive rating (121.3).

Clifford could make the excuse that he hasn't had a healthy roster for the better part of two years but he's not the type of coach to resort to that. He coaches those who are available and holds himself accountable when things aren't going well.

Following Wednesday's 123-117 loss to the Toronto Raptors, Clifford went in-depth on the Hornets' lack of effort to defend.

"I mean let's be honest, it's why I was brought here and to this point, I have failed pretty miserably is we don't care enough about defense all the time. We're better than we were in some ways but we're a sometimes team. Sometimes we run back, sometimes we don't. Sometimes we care about guarding the ball, sometimes we don't. When the ball starts going in the basket, a lot of times we don't care about defense anymore. You'll never win. You might win games, you might have a decent year but you'll never win. You'll never win a playoff series, you probably wouldn't win a playoff game. Those are the teams that get to the end of the year and if they're talented enough to get to a playoff series, they get their ass kicked. You've got to defend in the NBA. There's never been a team, never, that's been good and had a playoff run that wasn't good defensively. That's fact. Now, there have been teams that have struggled offensively going all the way back and were really good on defense and won. That's got to be a big, big part of what we do. 

"Last year, the one thing I felt good about was we had a stretch of 20 games after the All-Star break where we were second in defense. They bought in, we took it to the next level and for whatever reason, we have not gotten anywhere close to that this year. But we've got these four games left and then we can refresh a little bit and start again. I don't care who we play, if you play the right way you can give yourself a chance to win."

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